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Here's my guess:

Eldar - Indian mythology

Tau - Japanese sci-fi anime (Gundam etc.), hindu societal structure

Necrons - Terminator franchise

Tyranids - Alien franchise

Orks - Tolkien's orcs

Horus Heresy - Alexander's campaign and ensuing wars of the Diadochi

Nurgle - zombies

Khorne - Christian teachings about hell and daemons

Tzeentch - Egyptian/Mesopotamian mythology

Slaanesh - porn and opulence, debauchery

grey knights - monastic order during the crusades (like knights templar but we already have them inspiring the black templars)

sisters of battle - nuns

Eldar: Tolkein High Elves. In Space.

Ork: English Soccer Hooligans and Tolkein Orcs. In Space.

Stunts: Dwarves. In Space.

Horus Heresy: Biblical Tale of The Fall of Lucifer. In Space.

God-Emperor of Mankind: Jesus. In Space. With a job-title taken from a Frank Herbert novel.

All of the Chaos Gods: Michael Moorcock's various Chaos Gods from all of his Eternal Champion books (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Champion)

Grey Knights: The legends of the Knights-Templar... and their heresies. In Space.

Sisters of Battle: Renegade Nuns on Wheels
(http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=3094) In Space.

Tau: Gundam Anime. In Space.

Necrons: Terminator. In Space.

Tyranid: Aliens. Still In Space.

Space Marine - Starship Troopers

Tau also have a bit of Taoism, Confucianism., as well as a dash of Buddhism. Their tactics are also almost singularly modeled after Sun Tzu, and firewarriors look a bit like imperialist Japanese soldiers.

... just like the people of Japan, who created the manga/anime that the Tau are based on. The Tau are, basically, Orientalist depictions in 40K, like the Neimoidians of the Star Wars prequels, just not quite as overtly racist.

Eh, if they actually delved into the Tau more I'm guessing they'd be EXTREMELY racist. My impression is that those who join them are essentially fodder.

Sir Arun wrote:sisters of battle - nuns

That sounds a bit ... short, and is not really reflecting what they do.
SoB are pretty similar to what you listed for the Grey Knights and Black Templars - "monastic order during the crusades" - with the only difference to the SM versions being that they've thrown out the supersoldier bits in favour of an (even) stronger focus on religion, and that they are of the opposite gender. A notable influence here was Jeanne d'Arc; you will notice that the Fleur-de-Lis is very prominent on all Sororitas designs, and in fact the origin of the Sisterhood was a small temple on the Agriworld of San Leor (Orleans?).


I agree with Co'tor Shas' assessment of the Tau, by the way. But is it really "racist" if those qualities are or were not actually regarded as negative in the culture this army is imitating? I have to say, the Tau strike me as a rather positive society, and calling them racist feels similar to calling the Imperium "racist" because of how it depicts what is essentially medieval Europe. In Space.

Well the Tau caste system is very much based on the Hindu caste system: outwardly its an ideal about everyone working together for the common good of society, but in introspection you have all kinds of hatred between the castes, with one considering themselves higher than the other.

Ethereal caste = Brahmins
Fire Caste = kshatriyas (warriors)
Water Caste = vaishya (merchants, diplomats)
Earth Caste = shudra (farmers)

With obviously the Earth caste doing all the "dirty work", while the Fire Caste's only "dirty work" is killing the enemy on the battlefield. Ethereals are also considered the learned, the enlightened, almost holy individuals who brought wisdom to the Tau and liberated them from the darkness of barbarity.

Those are also five separate sub-species within the Tau biosphere. A member of the Air Caste, for example, cannot physically do the tasks the Earth Caste does, they are not physically strong enough, and not biologically capable of becoming strong enough.

Fire - Earth - Air - Water...What does that sound like to you?

The Tau castes are inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender.

... except for pre-dating that series by ten or fifteen years.

I'd call the SoB a mashup of nuns and crusade-era knights, neatly tied together by Jeanne d'Arc. Though I'd also say that there's some Spanish Inquisition in there, what with the fixation on the purifying effects of flame, and applying flames to dirty heretics and witches.

As for the Necrons, Ancient Egypt was always a presence in there, but it's really become more prominent, recently.

Space Marines, of course, depends entirely on the Chapter. We've got our Roman-esque Ultras, and I've heard the Imperial Fists referred to as Prussian. You get the idea.

 Psienesis wrote:
Eldar: Tolkein High Elves. In Space.

Ork: English Soccer Hooligans and Tolkein Orcs. In Space.

Stunts: Dwarves. In Space.

Horus Heresy: Biblical Tale of The Fall of Lucifer. In Space.

God-Emperor of Mankind: Jesus. In Space. With a job-title taken from a Frank Herbert novel.

All of the Chaos Gods: Michael Moorcock's various Chaos Gods from all of his Eternal Champion books (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Champion)

Grey Knights: The legends of the Knights-Templar... and their heresies. In Space.

Sisters of Battle: Renegade Nuns on Wheels
(http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=3094) In Space.

Tau: Gundam Anime. In Space.

Necrons: Terminator. In Space.

Tyranid: Aliens. Still In Space.

Total win. But the empy is more god from the first testament. Exalted

 Sir Arun wrote:
Well the Tau caste system is very much based on the Hindu caste system: outwardly its an ideal about everyone working together for the common good of society, but in introspection you have all kinds of hatred between the castes, with one considering themselves higher than the other.

Ethereal caste = Brahmins
Fire Caste = kshatriyas (warriors)
Water Caste = vaishya (merchants, diplomats)
Earth Caste = shudra (farmers)

With obviously the Earth caste doing all the "dirty work", while the Fire Caste's only "dirty work" is killing the enemy on the battlefield. Ethereals are also considered the learned, the enlightened, almost holy individuals who brought wisdom to the Tau and liberated them from the darkness of barbarity.

It is also very much Chinese in terms of the elements. Earth, Air, Fire, Metal, and Water are analogous to the primary elements which help determine a person and are combined with the more traditional zodiacal symbols, such as a Metal Horse (and just by chance there are 5 Tau castes which helps dictate the person). This then correlates to a Yin/Yang ideology of the Greater Good vs Farsight Enclaves or the Greater Good vs the Mon'tau.

I'll also note that the caste system in and of itself is not unique to India, it is just that it still underlines decisions in India to this day. Having lived and spent a lot of time in England, the caste system still exists there, it is just pretty muted.

Some Eldar symbols and names are also inspired by Neo-Paganism:

For example:
Samhain = Samhain (pronounced S-ow-ain)
Biel-Tan = Beltane

Tau inspired by Confucianism, Taoism and maybe some Chan Buddhism too...

Imperial Guard inspired by Russian WW2 tactics..e.g Commissars. Catachan Vietnam.

Look, Eldar have names, bits and pieces of lore, runes etc from all over Europe. Indian would be my last bet, I'd start with the Celts and work my way towards the Nile. You don't need neo-paganism when the original works well enough.

Avatar is an Indian concept. But youre right in that the Eldar have allthings and everything exotic in them. The Goddess Isha for example is obviously Ishtar from Babylonian mythology, aspect warriors and their rituals are highly reminiscent of the japanese samurai. The laughing god Cegorach sounds a lot like a name taken from the Celtic pantheon.

I don't think Isha is Ishtar... in name, maybe, but as their Goddess of Life and Healing is... very much out of line with what Ishtar was to Babylon. I think it may just be a bit of a "name inspired by" thing, kind of how Nurgle is inspired by Nergal, from the Necronomicon... even though Nergal is not a god of disease, or anything at all related to the Chaos God.

Which is fine. I mean, really, there's only so many phonetics you can string together to make sounds, and even fewer that will sound good in a theme, so why not make use of cool-sounding names that someone has come up with previously. Look at how often "John" gets imported into various languages.

I don't know, some of these are generic enough fantasy tropes that I don't think there's a lot of sense in drawing lines so far back. While I'm not very familiar with Indian mythology I don't see much in them that's not more likely plucked from easier sources. It may be that those sources eventually lead back there, but I'll still go for Tolkien's Elves and various European mythologies as the direct influences.

I also think that 'Nurgle: Zombies' is a bit thin. I don't imagine that he was originally concepted as a zombie-themed god; I think the core idea of a plague god more likely goes back to the Four Horsemen (not necessarily as a direct and intentional reference, but its existence as a well-known concept is probably what makes the 'plague personified' idea an obvious one). And I don't really think his visual design takes many cues from zombies; zombies are corpses, and often rotting, but there doesn't tend to be a visual emphasis on disease.

 Sir Arun wrote:
Here's my guess:
Eldar - Indian mythology

Actually, most of the Eldar mythos was developed by (I think) Jervis Johnson after a holiday in Egypt. Fairly sure it was Jervis, it was definitely Egypt. I think that ties into the look more than anything though.

 Sir Arun wrote:
Necrons - Terminator franchise

Partly that for the look, but they seem to me to have been a direct counter-part to undead, rather obviously. So the inspiration was actually all over the place already.

 Sir Arun wrote:
Tyranids - Alien franchise

Genestealers definitely were. The whole thing about implanting their DNA through the mouth (they used to have a kind of depositor in their tongue and "kiss" their victims).

 Sir Arun wrote:
Orks - Tolkien's orcs

No way. The way they talk, the fact that their original supplement was called "Ere we go!"... Unquestionably modelled on British football hooligans. They are light years from Tolkien's orcs.

Eldar- various of the eldren "space elves" from various Michael moorecock's books
pretty much all of the chaos gods and forces, the chaos from Michael moorecocks books again as with the elder with only slight name variations
Look at the older catalogues and you'll notice that they actually even used to sell eternal champion models. they pulled a LOT from his books. to be honest, read through some of his books anyway, they are good reads and you'll ind a lot of ways he influenced fantasy as well. One of the old GW novelcovers actually is a scene from a hwkmoon book featuring Baron Malaidious.
arbites-judge Dredd.

Starcraft.

*ducks*

Bit of a weird guess but...

Chaos - Lovecraft

read a few of the moorecock novels. try the hawkmoon trilogy and elric. You will see khorne and slannesh. I can see lovecraft for nurgle and tzeentch. Like I said, those are good reads in their own right and you will see fantasy and 40k in a whole new light.

I remember reading that Warhammer 40k started as a spin-off of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, so maybe it is there where you should look. That is actually the reason why there used to be space dwarf (squats). Then they dissapeared. A Games Workshop worker gave an interview and said that they were simply not able to find a suitable role for the race without making them look like "Fantasy Dwarfs in Space". This aside here my thoughts:

Eldar and Dark Eldar: General fantasy elves. Quick but not thought. Good at magic (psikers) and good craftsmans (DE tech).

Orks: they are not just Tolkien orks. They are much toughter and comical. I like the hooligan idea.

Tyranids: Obviously Alien-Zerg. The generic alien biomachinery all-devouring threat.

Space Marines & Chaos counterparts: A mixture of supersoldier with a bit of starship trooper and angels. hence the whole fallen angel thing with chaos.

Necrons: Obviously Terminator, now with a lot of Fantasy Tomb Kings taste.

Imperial Guard: Select any more or les modern army (Include WWI and WWII) and a apply science-fiction filter.

The Tau castes aren't based on Hindu castes. Each Tau caste has it's equal standing in the Empire and work together for "The Greater Good".

No race or faction is entirely just one culture lifted as is from history. GW has taken and blended and adapted (to vary degrees of success) parts from all over the world and from different historical time periods.

For example:

The Eldar thematically draw from multiple sources. Of these, Japan is one of them. Direct evidence of aesthetc borrowings include: the symbol of Iyanden includes a shrine gate design directly analogous to Japanese Shinto shrines. The back banners Jes Goodwin was fond of including in Eldar design (and which was present in many 2nd ed. models) matched the back banners worn by Japanese samurai and soldiers during the Japanese Warring States period and are even named as sashimono banners in Jes Goodwin's sketches and notes.

However, the Eldar also have influences from Greek,Celtic, even Egyptian sources. The Corinthian design of Eldar helms, particularly Dire Avenger ones, for example is clear Greek influence. Eldar Craftworld names of Biel-tan and Saim-han are direct copies of the real world Celtic festivals/holidays. The false chin beards on certain Eldar helms such as the Dire Avenger Exarch borrows from the Egyptians (see Egyptian funeral masks), and the Ulthwe design is based off the historical Egyptian Eye of Horus. The chiseled Eldar runes are based off Egyptian hieroglyphs while the more fluid Eldar runes look like those that might be written with a brush, and are either a reference to Egyptian Demotic or Asian brush writing. The Yin/Yang symbols on Eldar transfer sheets or Eldar Titans and Wraithknights is a take on the Chinese concept of Yin and Yang. The seals on the Wraith constructs is referred to by Jes Goodwin in his sketches as tugra, which is a Turk/Ottoman thing. Overlying all of this is the theme of Tolkien elves.

Thematically each of these cultures served as epitome of alien, inscrutable menace to one of the component influences on the Imperium. The Imperium is, obviously, part Roman, part-medieval and part-Victorian. Romans were simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by the Greeks and Egyptians, medieval western Europeans by the Byzantines and the Victorians by the Chinese. Fu Manchu, the quintessential "Yellow Peril" villain is pretty much how the Imperium pictures Eldar Farseers.

Orks as football hooligans is not even remotely ambiguous to anyone who grew up in Britain in the late Eighties when orks were created proper. The language, the look, phrases used. The first book was actually called "Ere We Go!". Now once you got into the orks, there were mire influences that came in -Snake Bites, Goffs, etc, all had their unique influences. But nothing and no-one formed more of a base for the orks than British football hooligans. They're a direct parody.

 Medium of Death wrote:
The Tau castes aren't based on Hindu castes. Each Tau caste has it's equal standing in the Empire and work together for "The Greater Good".

This is true, there are no 'untouchable' castes in Tau society, where in the Tau would tell only 5 Tau out of 50 that they could get on a rescue boat and then leave the other 45 to die, even though the boat can carry 100 Tau and isn't making another stop outside of returning to the main landing zone for rescue and retrieval efforts. Yet this still happens in India today due to the caste system.

Iracundus wrote:
Thematically each of these cultures served as epitome of alien, inscrutable menace to one of the component influences on the Imperium. The Imperium is, obviously, part Roman, part-medieval and part-Victorian. Romans were simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by the Greeks and Egyptians, medieval western Europeans by the Byzantines and the Victorians by the Chinese. Fu Manchu, the quintessential "Yellow Peril" villain is pretty much how the Imperium pictures Eldar Farseers.

For the Imperium, you've missed out Catholicism. The Imperium is essentially Catholic Space Nazis. You've got the old fellah on a holy seat, a religious centre, many catholic trappings, rituals, saints, an inquistion. Even the restrictions on scientific curiosity are thematically close to what is a popular perception of the historical church. Then from the Nazis, you've got ideals of purity, fear of the Other and of corruption within, autocracy, militant culture... Yes, Roman elements are in there but I think in many cases they come via Nazism which emulated Roman imagery a great deal.

Nazism and catholicism are the biggest influences on the IoM, imo. Note, I mean no offence to any real world people. I'm just talking about influences of ieas and imagery, not talking about whät anyone is actually like.